Asshat of the Week

...goes to Senator John McCain (R-AZ) for his pathetic reliance on the Repub "It's Clinton's Fault" defense in response to the recent North Korean nuclear weapons demonstration. From ABC News:

Still, McCain maintained that the Clinton administration had enabled North Korea to apparently develop nuclear weapons.

"Having said that, during the Clinton administration years, here we concluded an unenforceable and untransparent agreement, which allowed [North Korea] to keep plutonium rods in a reactor … in order to make them nuclear material," McCain said. "[His negotiations] would put them on the path to develop nuclear weapons. … And we did nothing but more talk."

At a news conference Tuesday, McCain called Clinton's dealings with North Korea a failure.

"I would remind Sen. [Hillary] Clinton and other Democrats critical of the Bush administration's policies that the framework agreement her husband's administration negotiated was a failure," McCain said after a campaign appearance for Republican Senate candidate Mike Bouchard.

Now you can rely on more accurate accounts of history to explain what really happened in the 1990s (Kaplan, Marshall, Kessler). Or you can believe Bush's explanation, which boils down to "fuck you, I know what I'm doing, I'm fixing what Clinton failed to do, go back to sleep." The fact that McCain resorts to these transparent and low-brow tactics of changing the interpretation of history really shows how desperate and pathetic this once noble man has become.

Maybe McCain needs a call from his friend and 2000-presidential campaign backer, Warren Rudman, the former Republican senator from New Hampshire. Rudman was awarded the George C. Marshall medal at the annual Association of the U.S. Army meeting last night. I received word that Rudman got emotional talking about the Army's dangerous state of readiness - that we needed to take a page from Marshall's history and "speak truth to power" to push for needed resources and fixes - and that it would "take a generation to repair the damage caused to this fine institution." Rudman is a Korean war veteran and has had a very respectable record of taking care of the Army. McCain needs to talk to him and get some new plays for his upcoming  presidential campaign - plays that might attribute the Army's current low state of readiness to something more immediate than the previous administration's record.

Comments

[donkef]

I've lost all respect for McCain in the last six months as well. His coddling to the Pat Robertsons and Jerry Falwells of his party, whom he once had the courage to criticize, and the comments you cite are all part of his political strategy for winning the nomination in '08. How someone like him could sell his soul is beyond me.

[Maxtrue]

Is there another way to win the Republican nomination?

History seems to show that Clinton's effort did not work nor has Bush's (maybe less so if they don't get the UN to act). It makes sense to have six-party talks in the long run, but it seems that the deeper issue is that China does not want reunification, nor does Japan. I think they both fear that should Jong-il fall from power and Democracy prevail a prodctive Korea will be too competitive.

It is worth noting that two former Clinton officials recommended bombing missile sites before NK's latest test launches. Japanese nationalists use NK to advocate a stronger military. It is complicated and I don't think McCain is more partisan than Democrats -who are blaming Bush.

What would you do?

[J.]

Maxtrue - here's a 2003 quote from Colin Powell in today's WaPo - "The previous administration I give great credit to for freezing that plutonium site. Lots of nuclear weapons were not made because of the Agreed Framework and the work of President Clinton and his team."

So point 1, yes, the Clinton approach was successful. Point 2, the two former Clinton officials who recommended bombing NK were idiots trying to pander to the nat-sec world. Point 3, what would I do, reinstate the bilateral talks, discuss options with the other four nations behind the scene, and publicly note that the US national security position re: emerging nuclear powers is that our 5000+ nuclear weapons are reprogrammable.

Deterrence worked for more than 50 years. Let's not pretend that we can't use that successful model for Iran and N.K. Neither country is suicidal, but they recongize when this administration is bluffing and not committed to negotiable position.

[maxtrue]

J,
Do you favor interdicting wmd materials and delivery systems in and out of NK? Do you think it will be easy to locate the source of a terrorist attack once proliferation has started and various operation bases are available? Now that the Dems are in power of Congress (I have never voted Republican) what would be the strategy to contain wmd proliferation? Big question. Of course, McCain is advocating more soldiers, taking out Sadr and backing up Kerry's 2004 declaration to "not allow Iran to get the bomb". Is the cat out of the bag?

Lastly, Ted Koppel's "Don Corleone" option seems insane. Would you advocated nuking someone (who?) if a dirty bomb goes off in LA? I still don't see how retaliation threats are the way out of the present mess. DefenseTech.org posted some good articles a while back saying the DOD isn't very confident that we would be able to determine who actually attacked us.

Max NYC